Gaming firm Razer up 18% following Hong Kong IPO

Razer has continued a winning streak of IPOs from Asian companies after its share price surged as much as 41 percent up on its first day of trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The company, which makes accessories for PC gamers, laptops and is preparing to sell its first smartphone, raised $529 million from the sale of 1,063,600,000 shares. After deductions, Razer estimated its take-home to be around $504 million.

The offering was massively over-scribed, to the point that Razer restructured the listing to offer more shares to local retail investors in Hong Kong. The final mix was 50-50 between local and global shares.

The U.S.-Singapore company makes three-quarters of its revenue from selling accessories like mice, headphones and keyboards for gamers, but it plans to introduce software services and push its other hardware products.

Razer hasn't been profitable since 2014, posting losses of $20 million and $59.6 million in 2015 and 2016, respectively. The former, it said, was largely down to the cost of an aborted U.S. listing, while its most recent financial year saw an increase in stock options and more R&D. Excluding that compensation, Razer’s loss for 2016 was a more modest US$20.6 million.